Thread by @JordanChariton

#BREAKING THREAD: As I warned, #FlintWaterCrisis charges against ex-MI Gov. Rick Snyder and 7 other defendants have been dropped due to MI AG Dana Nessel’s stunning bungling of the case…abcnews.go.com/amp/Health/wir…

REMINDER: From 2016 through 2018, an independent Flint special prosecutor & lead investigator (former head of Detroit FBI office) had built a widespread crim prosecution charging 15 state and city officials with crimes ranging from involuntary manslaughter to financial fraud…

As we broke, that team was building case against Snyder for invol manslaughter & had compiled evidence showing Snyder helped cover up deadly Legionnaires outbreak that killed many in Flint. Yet Nessel fired the special prosecutor & chief investigator…theintercept.com/2021/01/13/fli…

And the entire original criminal prosecution team based on them “not securing all the evidence.” They never gave any evidence for that claim and my reporting indicates it was never true and Nessel got rid of them for political reasons. In addition to the fired team building a…

Case against Snyder for involuntary manslaughter, as I broke—they were also building major racketeering (RICO) case against state officials for financial fraud that led to poisoning of Flint. They were months away from filing charges when Nessel fired them

https://twitter.com/jordanchariton/status/1483077678110584836

After firing the original prosecution team for dubious reasons, Nessel then inserted prosecutors who had ZERO experience investigating or prosecuting widespread financial fraud—her team didn’t even properly debrief with the outgoing fired team of prosecutors who has built…

The case for 3 years and had ALL OF THE INSTITUTIONAL knowledge of a complicated investigation that had been investigating the Governor, his top officials, his health dpt, his environmental dpt, and local Flint officials: Nessel’s team basically restarted from scratch for no…

Real reason. Nessel and her team badly bungled a case that included the following bombshells we broke:

🚨Snyder’s top adviser and best friend offered payoffs to sick Flint residents & told them Snyder was aware

….

🚨Prosecutors concluded Snyder and his top officials had covered up the deadly waterborne Legionnaires outbreak weeks before his 2014 gubernatorial reelection (and had obtained an avalanche of Snyder’s phone calls they concluded shower this)

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🚨Snyder’s top officials—press secretary, top health dept officials—had their phones erased soon before the launch of the Flint criminal investigation in 2016. Several had all of their text messages for 2014 through Oct 2015 erased (the period Flint used Flint River) …

🚨Snyder refused to provide prosecutors with key documents and governor’s briefings he received for many years. Snyder’s evasiveness potentially would have led to obstruction of justice charges…

🚨Top officials in Snyder’s administration and local Flint officials were soon to be charged with major financial fraud linked to a bond deal that led to Flint joining the KWA water pipeline (and using Flint River while it was under construction)

…

I have spent the last 6 years of my journalistic career investigating the #FlintWaterCrisis and cover-up. I’ve reported on the ground in Flint 18 times since 2016. As I’ve repeatedly said, based on my reporting I can say this is the biggest govt cover-up of the 21st century…

I am not a Flint resident but I have already received messages from residents absolutely speechless—with this decision to dismiss charges against Snyder and 7 other defendants confirming what they long suspected…their lives and health do not matter.

In a supposed Democracy, there is something very wrong when a poor majority Black city—with a lot of poor whites as well—are poisoned and slowly left to die but 8 years later the water is still toxic (despite bs govt claims) and not one politician has been held accountable

FYI-I have another MAJOR Flint water investigative piece in the works and hopefully published soon. The piece will show even more elements of the cover-up